Classic win for Underthemoonlight
Tauranga Classic success for Underthemoonlight has prompted thoughts of bigger prizes for the daughter of El Hermano.
Karyn McQuade trains the mare at Matamata and co-owns with her husband Hamish and Cliff Solomon.
The winner of three before her $50,000 Listed win on Saturday, she was ridden by Cameron Lammas.
‘‘She will have a break now,’’ Hamish McQuade said after her latest success. ‘‘But I truly believe she is a Group I horse so long as she can get her toe in the ground.’’
Saturday’s contest was run on a Heavy11 surface which McQuade maintains was not ideal.
‘‘She won quite easily in the end.’’
Lammas agreed that the 5-yearold wasn’t at home on the heavy track.
‘‘She didn’t handle the ground that well,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve just come out and found a nice bit of ground for her and she’s done the job for me.’’
She did the job by three and a-half lengths from New York Minute with Meursault a further four and a-quarter lengths to southern visitor Meursault running on for third.
Her fourth win was well deserved as luck has deserted her recently.
‘‘She’s a fantastic mare,’’ McQuade said. ‘‘She’s had no luck in her last three starts.’’
Cambridge trainer Tony Pike couldn’t win the Classic with Nomisma who finished near the rear, but there was no such problem with her half-brother Dynamic Eagle in the 3-year-old feature earlier on the card.
The interestingly named race, The Frocked Up Girls 1400 ended up being a cakewalk for the big, strapping son of Guillotine ridden by Michael McNab.
Pre-race, Pike thought the progressive type may have lacked the ringcraft of some of his opposition at just his third start.
But it didn’t matter after he mastered the pacemaker Amastar and bolted to an easy win.
‘‘He’s still got a lot to learn,’’ Pike said. ‘‘He sort of ranged up and got a bit lost for a little part of the straight but his last part of the race was very strong.
‘‘He’s going to develop into a nice horse.’’
McNab labelled him as a horse ‘‘going places’’.
‘‘He won really well,’’ McNab said. ‘‘But I thought you’ve only seen 60 per cent of him today.
‘‘He wanted to do a lot wrong and he was quite uptight for him but it was a good effort.’’
Despite taking 1:31.91 for the trip, both trainer and jockey predict Dynamic Eagle will be at his best on a dead track but Pike will push on to another 3-year-old race in the meantime.
Dynamic Eagle was an $80,000 Karaka yearling purchase for Pike’s stable client Colin Keane.
A three-length winner on debut at Matamata at the beginning of last month, Dynamic Eagle finished second to Irish Mist at Ellerslie during Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Punters got it spot on when Art Deco won the Rating 85 over 1200m.
TAB odds-setter Stephen Hunt reported a flood of money for the Allan Sharrock-trained mare lured north from New Plymouth for the $30,000 race.
‘‘She’s been crunched in to $2.90,’’ Hunt reported.